What was Blakemore and Cooper's research based on?
Hirsch and Spinelli, who used monocular vision to create vertical/horizontal environment
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What is monocular vision?
Each eye is used separately
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What is binocular vision?
Both eyes are used together
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Name the 2 aims of Blakemore & Cooper
To investigate the development of the primary visual cortex. To find out if some of its properties such as orientation selectivity are innate or learned.
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What was the research method of this study?
Laboratory experiment with independent measures design
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What was the IV in this study?
Whether kittens were reared in a horizontal or vertical striped environment
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What was the DV in this study?
Their visuomotor behaviour once they were placed in a illuminated environment. (i.e. whether horizontally raised kittens could detect vertically aligned objects and the other way around)
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Describe the sample used in this study
Kittens (studied from birth), randomly allocated to each condition. 2 kittens were used to study the neurophysical effects (on of each condition)
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When were the kittens first placed in the environment?
Individually placed in environment at 2 weeks old, for about 5 hours a day.
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What did the environment look like?
A cylinder with vertical/horizontal stripes. The kittens wore a wide black collar so it could not even see its own body.
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When was the routine stopped?
At 5 months old
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What happened after the routine stopped?
Kittens were taken for several hours to a well-lit room with tables and chairs. Their visual reactions were recorded.
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What happened to two kittens after 7.5 months?
These were anaesthetised so their neurophysiology could be examined
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Describe the results from this study
Showed behavioural blindness, kittens raised in horizontal environment could not detect vertically aligned objects and vice versa. Papillary reflexes were normal but they showed no visual placing when brought up to a table top and no startle response
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How long did it take for the kittens to show normal responses
10 hours
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What where the neurophysiological findings?
Horizontal plane recognition cells did not fire off in the kittens from vertical environment and vice versa. So there was distinct orientation selectivity showing physical blindness
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What was Blakemore and Cooper's conclusion?
Brain development is determined by the functional demands made upon it rather than pre-programmed genetic factors.
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